Letters

Armless?

SIR – It was precisely the lack of evidence and, more particularly, the inability of the Bush and Blair teams to prove the existence of “a clear and imminent” threat which formed the basis of so much opposition to the war in Iraq (“Secret weapons”, May 31st). Many people across the globe will doubtless rest easier that such an unsympathetic character as Saddam Hussein no longer controls Iraq. But the point was, and is, whether it was justifiable for heavy-handed international politicians to sanction the invasion of a sovereign state. On the evidence before us, then and now, the answer seems to be “no”.

SIR – A few years after calling for Bill Clinton's resignation for lying about his sexual escapades (“Just go”, September 19th 1998), you seem remarkably sanguine about the possible exaggeration or fabrication of Iraq's military capabilities. Wilfully misrepresenting evidence in order to lead a country to war goes well beyond scandalous; indeed, it is criminal. While history may “judge the second Gulf war on a number of criteria”, one wishes The Economist would judge the leaders of democracies rather more strictly.

John Parker

Washington, DC

SIR – The prospect of a huge risk does not require a very high probability before it triggers the duty to act to prevent harm. In defence of your courageous prime minister and our common-sense president, to concede even a reasonable probability that someone of Saddam's malevolence had any programmes for producing weapons of mass destruction justified an aggressive and timely intervention—particularly given Iraq's permeable borders and shady associations. Anything less would have constituted foreign-policy malpractice.

Jay Gaskill

Alameda, California

Take me out of the ball game

SIR – Lexington identifies baseball's antitrust exemption as the source of its problems (May 31st). Other sports leagues lack an exemption but are less competitive from a business standpoint. American football and basketball leagues, and those of several less-popular sports, cap each team's player payroll. National Football League teams share all television revenues equally. The league, rather than individual teams, sells the TV rights to all games. NFL teams have also forced cities and states to build stadiums for them by threatening to leave town.

Unlike other big American sports, the baseball-players' union wields substantial power, resulting in the highest average salaries. However, the union has been at war with the owners for 30 years. The main causes of baseball's fall in popularity are a tendency to go on strike every four or five years, the owners' mismanagement through, among other things, overexposure (almost all of the 2,430 games each year are televised) and dilution of talent by increasing the number of teams.

Donald Spratt

Bel Air, Maryland

Up for the cup

SIR – Charlemagne exaggerates the early reluctance of “British” football teams to enter the first European Cup (May 31st). Hibernian, a Scottish side, accepted an invitation to play in the inaugural tournament, reaching the semi-final stage.

Stephen McLellan

Dunfermline, Fife

Free to disagree

SIR – You say that demonstrations in Hong Kong, such as the candle-lit vigil held on June 4th, may be banned in the future under proposed legislation implementing article 23 of the Basic Law (World this week, June 7th). This is simply not true. Our national-security (legislative provisions) bill has proposed that all its provisions must be interpreted, applied and enforced in accordance with chapter three of the Basic Law, which protects freedom of speech, association, procession and assembly, among others. The proposed legislation will not undermine in any way fundamental rights and freedoms currently enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong.

Timothy Tong

Permanent secretary for security (acting)

Hong Kong

Moderate Muslims

SIR – One positive effect of the most recent terrorist bombings in Riyadh and Casablanca is a timid re-emergence of the moderate Muslim voice (“Synchronised crime”, May 24th). The crackdowns against militants in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, as illiberal as they may be, seem to have the support of the average Muslim on the street. Is this the beginning of a resurgence of moderate Muslim rationalism born of self-preservation? Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between reform-minded Muslims and the governments of the Middle East?

Nicholas Shenkin

Oakland, California

Fundamental but vague

SIR – It is not surprising that the EU constitution's charter of fundamental rights engenders worries about the fate of national autonomy (“Tidying up or tyranny?”, May 31st). Nor is it shocking that some parties urge for “an explanatory commentary, limiting the charter's impact on national legislatures, attached to the constitution.” The best formula for such a commentary might call for ambiguity, rather than specificity. Witness America's Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Such vagueness satisfied both anti-federalists (who understood “delegated” to mean “expressly delegated”), as well as federalists (who viewed the amendment as tautologous, hence harmless). The text's precise purport only emerged with subsequent case law governing civil rights and Roosevelt's New Deal. Some may say that hard cases make bad law. Churchill agreed that case law is indeed the worst method of constitutional clarification—except for the others.

Timothy Chambers

Providence, Rhode Island

Military withdrawal

SIR – It is time to acknowledge that there is no military solution that the West can offer the developing world (“The undead”, May 24th). Bureaucrats have a hard enough time picking the “right” side in ongoing conflicts even to consider applying military might to one side or the other. If there is a real spirit of charity towards developing nations, perhaps a good first step would be to ban weapon sales. I imagine that the rifle and rocket launcher shown in the picture accompanying your article were not developed and constructed in Congo.

Joel Hiltner

Farmington, Maine

Reasserting the law

SIR – Frank Scheelen (Letters, May 31st) is incorrect about Moore's law. A doubling every 18 months does indeed imply exponential growth. You can check this easily on a calculator, if yours has enough transistors.